InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Father's Day ❯ Father's Day ( Chapter 1 )

[ A - All Readers ]

I don't own Inuyasha. If I did, the anime would stick so much closer to the real story in the manga ;P

Inuyasha looked up from the small tomato plant in front of him, squinting up into the afternoon sunlight. It was really starting to get too hot to be outside much, but he'd needed something to keep himself busy until Kagome came back.

His canine nose gave a twitch, catching the scents carried on the light breeze. Were his senses deceiving him, or..? He straightened up, an astonished grin making its way onto his face. She was back!

In an instant, he was on his feet and bounding out of the little garden, almost unconsciously careful of the beloved vegetable plants. Kagome had worked so hard to clear out a small plot of land next to the house and then had lovingly watered and weeded the garden nearly everyday that he almost couldn't help but watch out for her plants' well being as well.

He skidded around the corner of the house to the front, leaping up onto the porch to run across its smooth wooden surface to the forest trail beyond. With the wood pounding away beneath his feet, he thought again of how they had celebrated their one-year mark only last week. One year… which meant one year and one day since he'd finished building this cozy little house and presented it to Kagome.

It had been about the only gift he could give her, and while he had built a strong, sturdy house for her, Kagome had taken it and made a warm, safe home for them both.

Home. The word still bemused him, especially in the context of it being his home - or, even better, their home.

And Kagome was back… Kagome was home!

The girl looked up, shading her eyes with one hand, as she stepped from the trees out into their meadow-of-a-yard. She smiled to herself, breathing in the deliciously clean air and listening to the sounds of woodland life all around her. Really, the longer she lived in the Sengoku Jidai, the more she came to love it. Even with her family still living in Tokyo, she was finding herself less and less suited to the cramped, polluted environment of a twenty-first century metropolis as more time went by. Of course, there were still some modern conveniences that were very helpful…

Shaking herself out of such thoughts, Kagome's smile grew as her gaze caught on the red- and white-clad form of her half-demon husband coming barreling down the slope to meet her. Before she could so much as raise a hand in greeting, he was skidding to a halt next to her, spraying dirt and dust from the path all over both of them, and grabbing her up for a fierce but quick welcome home hug.

Normally, she would have swatted at him to put her down so that they could walk back to the house like civilized people, but not today. Today, nothing could spoil her good mood, especially not Inuyasha's antics. If anything, she just felt all the happier for his eagerness to greet her, so she just laughed and threw her arms around his neck and let him swing her around with her feet dangling nearly a full twelve inches from the ground. And then, when he did put her down, she just smiled again and leaned up on her tip-toes to kiss him, right there in broad daylight.

He hesitated for a moment, caught off guard, and then kissed her back. She smiled, thinking, I love you so much, since her mouth was busy at the moment.

They parted after a few moments. "Happy Fathers' Day!" Kagome said, grasping his hand and swinging it between them as they made their way up the short hill to their house.

Inuyasha made a face and half-jokingly asked, "Is this another one of your crazy future traditions?"

Kagome bit her lip but didn't stop smiling as they mounted the steps up to the porch of their little house set just outside Kaede's village. Fatherhood was a tender subject in their little group…

Their friends, Sango and Miroku, had been married only weeks after Naraku's demise. That was nearly three years ago, but they still remained childless (and not for lack of trying, Miroku assured them). It broke her heart to see them - Miroku's main goal in life had been to sire an heir for so long that it seemed almost like one last blow from Naraku that, after he was dead and Miroku's kaza'ana and the need for an heir gone, he could not have children with the woman he loved.

They did everything they could to try to help their friends, Kagome even going and researching any herbs that could be found in the Sengoku Jidai that might help with fertility. But, as more time went by, Miroku and Sango were slowly reaching and accepting the realization that some people just couldn't have children, and they seemed to be some of those people.

Inuyasha was afraid of them ending up like that too. He didn't really say much about it, but Kagome knew. From the way he watched the mothers with their children in the village, and the haunted look he always got when Miroku said something about not having children, Kagome knew that he was seeing Kagome and himself old and decrepit, with no one but each other to remember them. She knew that the thought of never having a family, of growing old and lonely, terrified him more than perhaps anything else.

They'd been married for just over a year, and while he had been as exuberant as she when they celebrated their first anniversary, she knew that in at least some part of his mind it was seen as one year that they hadn't had children.

She waited until they were inside the house, the door securely closed behind them before saying anything more. The interior of the house was dim and cool next to the bright early-summer heat outside. Kagome sighed happily to herself and slipped her shoes off, letting her bag slide down from her shoulder to the floor. It was good to be home.

"Did you see your family?" Inuyasha asked, making his way over to pour himself a cup of water from the bamboo pipes that brought water in from the drinking barrels outside. That had been one of the things that Kagome had insisted on when they were moving in: she didn't care if the water was hot or cold, she just wanted some way of getting it inside the house. They had searched throughout all the surrounding towns and villages and had finally found a craftsman who would design such a strange contraption. Kagome was happy with it, and hey, it beat having to go outside every time he needed a drink, so he wasn't about to complain.

"Hai," Kagome said, watching him as she brought her things over to the small table on one side of the room. "Mama sends her love, and of course, this…" She suppressed a giggle as Inuyasha's head whipped around to stare at what she had just drawn from her pack: a full loaf of banana bread, fresh from the oven.

Her hanyou, it turned out, had quite the sweet tooth, and it was a dream come true for him to find that his new mother-in-law was a master sweet bread maker. Mrs. Higurashi was of course flattered by the way he gobbled up any and all of her cooking, and so wasted no time in providing him with all his favorite sweets, especially the much-loved banana bread.

Kagome snickered as the bread suddenly disappeared from her hand, "Careful, or you're gonna get fat."

Inuyasha paused, one mouthful already missing from the bread, and then broke off a large chunk from the other end. Scooting over next to his wife, he dropped it in her still up-turned hand. "Fine, then you can be fat with me." And with that, he stuck his nose in the air and went back to eating.

Laughing and shaking her head at his antics, she wrapped the bread back in its cling-wrap covering to save it for later. She watched Inuyasha eat for a few moments, and then looked down at the table in front of her, suddenly nervous. "Inuyasha," she started, getting his attention. He glanced over at her, still chewing, a questioning tilt to his eyebrows. "Anou… You know I've been visiting my mother more often recently…"

He swallowed his bite of bread, his ears starting to lay back at her uneasy tone. "Yeah…"

"Well," she traced a random pattern on the wood with her finger, "they haven't just been social calls."

"Okay…" He was watching her, starting to look worried.

"I- I didn't want to say anything until I was sure, so I went and saw a doctor in my time."

Inuyasha stared at her, his ears laid all the way back in his mane of silvery hair. The banana bread was forgotten in his hands. "A… doctor..?"

Catching his tone, Kagome finally looked up. Seeing the look of concern on his face, she rushed to reassure him. "Oh, it's nothing bad!" Grabbing his hands in hers, a bright smile made its way onto her flushed face. "I got the test results back today, and…" He stared at her, wondering what could have gotten her so excited. "I'm pregnant!"

Oh.. Well there is that...

His brain suddenly caught up with what his ears were hearing. "You- You're- This isn't a joke? You're serious?!"

She nodded, smiling broadly. "Yeah. We're going to have a baby!"

He just sat, an astonished smile slowly making its way onto his face, as Kagome leaned up to kiss him again.

"So yes - Happy Fathers' day."

Well, new fic, perhaps? I have an idea for continuing this, but I may just leave this as a waffy little one-shot, at least for a while. Probably would've made more sense for me to post this around Father's Day, but oh well :P

Please review!! All questions and criticisms are welcome!! ^_^